TERESA DEL BAMBIN GESÙ E DEL VOLTO SANTO, saint — Final part of the letter of St. T. del B. G., written on 27 Jan. 1897 to Brother Simeone, founder of the « S. Giuseppe » — Rome, Archives of the Collegio S. Giuseppe.
malformation, being purely quantitative in nature, therefore remains of subjective value, such that, in borderline cases, it is not always easy to draw a clear boundary between a severe anomaly and a slight monstrosity.
The formation of a monster must be regarded as the consequence of ontogenetic alterations that develop in the prefertilization stage of the egg and spermatozoon, or during the stages of the fertilized ovum that follow up to complete organogenesis; consequently, the anomaly may be such as to affect it in its very intimate constitution, in which case the damage is much more serious, or may simply appear as a defect in the subsequent stages of its development. The causes may be extremely varied, ranging from abnormalities of the sexual elements (spermatozoa with several heads or several tails seem to be significant in explaining the origin of multiple monstrosities), to hereditary, mechanical, physical, and chemical causes; intoxications (alcohol) and both acute (rubella) and chronic (syphilis) infections; psychopathy; and consanguinity. The importance of purely psychic causes (impressions, emotions, fright, etc.) remains controversial. The monster’s viability is affected by the extent of the malformation and may range from inability to live outside the uterus to many years of survival (the pair of monster « Siamese brothers » lived to the age of 63 and had 22 children, all normal).
The monstrous malformation may affect the entire individual or only certain parts of II. Thus, failure of closure of the cranium or spinal column results in cranioschisis, anencephaly, or rachischisis; affecting the face and neck, there are prosoposchisis, harelip, cleft palate, and cyclopia; affecting the thorax and abdomen, sternal fissures, bladder exstrophy, pseudo-hermaphroditism, and true hermaphroditism; affecting the extremities, amelia, phocomelia, symmelia, and polydactyly; affecting the external covering tissues (integuments), spines, horns, albinism, alopecia, and onychogryphosis. Monstrosity may appear in a multiple or composite form, with each monster existing independently (in which case it belongs to the field of twinning), or joined symmetrically or asymmetrically to the other. The union may be between the crania (craniopagi), between the thoraces (thoracopagi), or between the caudal extremities (ischiopagi), etc.; alternatively, in the asymmetrical form, the parasitic individual may be encranial, thoracic, or gastro-parasitic.
Some individual and multiple monstrosities, when confined within particular regional and severity limits, are amenable to surgical repair.